Renu Arora Awarded Peggy Ramsay Award for New Writing of THE BURGUNDY BOOK

Renu Arora, the award winning disabled actor, singer, writer and composer, has been awarded the Peggy Ramsay Foundation Grant. The £5,000 award supports the development of The Burgundy Book, a groundbreaking digitally immersive musical inspired by Arora's own life-altering accident and Near-Death Experience (NDE).

On 29 March 2017, Renu Arora, was hit by a bus and saw her leg disappear underneath the wheel. Almost nine years to the day later, this award facilitates the transition of Arora's work from its current album form into a full-scale libretto and digitally immersive musical for the stage.

Previous winners of the prestigious award have performed across the West End, Broadway and Internationally. Playwrights ‘73 is a successor to the Thames Television Theatre Writers Scheme which was originally founded in 1973 and subsequently supported by Pearson (as the Pearson Playwrights' Scheme) and Channel 4.

This builds on her current work as a Resident Artist (25/26) with Arts Depot who also contributed to the development of the project via seed funding and a residency. 

Beyond the physical changes, the accident was profoundly transformative. In the suspended moments of a Near-Death Experience (NDE), Renu witnessed a "Life Review" in the form of three books. She saw the Blue Book of her past and the Green Book of her survival. But just as she reached The Burgundy Book - containing her unlived future - she screamed. This scream thrust her back into her body, and she never saw the contents of the book.

Written, composed and performed by Renu Arora, directed by Erica Whyman OBE, previously the Acting Artistic Director of Royal Shakespeare Company, Dramaturgy by Sita Brahmachari, (Malorie Blackman Impact Prize Winner 2025 & Waterstones Book Prize Winner) with Music Consultancy by Marc Teitler, credits including The Magician's Elephant (RSC), The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic), Baddies (Unicorn Theatre). 

The first single from the current concept album version of The Burgundy Book - Liferaft Into Tomorrow - is currently available to listen on all streaming services.

Renu Arora, the creator of The Burgundy Book, said: “I didn't expect to get this brilliant award! I'm over the moon. This has come in the same week as the nine-year anniversary of the accident and near-death experience from which The Burgundy Book emerged. The timing feels deeply serendipitous. Since my accident, and especially since the NDE, I've felt there is no such thing as coincidence. Everything that happens - whether good, bad, or indifferent - feels exactly right. I'm exactly where I'm meant to be.”

About Renu Arora

Renu Arora is an award-winning Disabled artist - actor, singer and writer - and a public figure of South Asian heritage, with a body of work spanning over two decades. She was shortlisted for Unlimited UK Open Awards (2024), Shortlisted for the BBC Arts Commissioning Round, Radio 4 (2024), a founding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Freelance Consultation Group (2022), received the NRI (non-resident Indian) Award for ‘Most Empowered and Courageous Artist' (2022) and a finalist for the BBC Culture in Quarantine Initiative (2021) for The Burgundy Book album.

Her original stage and audio projects have been commissioned by Arts Council England and The Royal Literary Fund, presented at leading UK venues, streamed internationally, and featured widely across the BBC. She has worked with major institutions including the Royal Shakespeare Company, London's Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, Bristol Old Vic, Soho Theatre, Leicester Curve, Riverside Studios and Theatre Royal Stratford East, and has collaborated with companies such as Tamasha, Tara Arts and Kali Theatre. 

She regularly features on BBC Radio you can hear her appearance on BBC Sideways below.